"Happy Endings" is a short story by Margaret Atwood that can be considered meta-fiction. In other words, it is fiction that deals with the theme of fiction writing. One can imagine the author of this story as a professor giving directions to a class of students learning how to write happy endings for short stories.

This story is written as if it is a multiple-choice task. There are several options, A through F, which will all lead to a happy ending for the story's characters. Ultimately, as Atwood points out, the end matters very little. Readers will be more interested on the middle of the story, the part that addresses the reasons things have occurred, or the causes and the effects that drive the story.

The speaker of this piece of literature provides the beginning of a story, saying "John and Mary meet. What happens...